Secretary of State Rex Tillerson said Wednesday that Americans should “sleep well” despite rising tensions with North Korea, and said he sees no “imminent threat” despite news that the country may now have the ability to deliver a miniaturized nuclear weapon to the U.S.
“Americans should sleep well at night,” he said during his return trip from Malaysia to the United States, according to the Associated Press.
Tillerson also defended President Trump’s “fire and fury” comment about North Korea, and said it is part of the administration’s strategy to motivate Kim Jong Un into talks with the U.S.
“I think what the president was doing is sending a strong message to North Korea in language that Kim Jong Un would understand, because he doesn’t seem to understand diplomatic language,” he said. “I think it was important that he deliver that message to avoid any miscalculation on their part.”
Still, he stressed that things seem to be stable on the Korean Peninsula despite the news from the last 24 hours.
“Nothing that I have seen and nothing that I know of would indicate that the situation has dramatically changed in the last 24 hours,” Tillerson said.
He added that the saber-rattling never caused him to consider changing his flight to avoid Guam, either.
“No, I never considered re-routing the trip back, and I do not believe that there is any imminent threat, in my own view,” Tillerson said.
